What is Western Esotericism?

From ancient gnosis to contemporary occulture

The term “Western esotericism” covers a wide spectrum of neglected
currents in Western cultural history. As an umbrella term that intends
to highlight connections and developments over a long period, from
antiquity to the present day, esotericism includes phenomena as varied
as Gnosticism, Hermetism, and Neoplatonic Theurgy, Astrology, Alchemy,
and Natural Magic, Christian Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, Christian
Theosophy and Illuminism, the currents of modern Occultism,
Spiritualism, Traditionalism, the New Age movement, Neopaganism, Ritual
Magical groups, and a host of contemporary alternative spiritualities
and forms of popular “occulture”. In short, esotericism cuts through
established boundaries of religion, science, art, and philosophy. As an
academic field of study, Western esotericism is therefore a highly
interdisciplinary enterprise.

Religion, science, and rejected knowledgeAt first sight, the only thing esoteric currents may appear to have
in common is the experience of having been rejected by mainstream
religious and academic institutions in the West. In other words, the
study of western esotericism is largely concerned with those traditions
and ideas that have lost the battle for hegemony in Western intellectual
and cultural history. The polemical debates unleashed by the Protestant
Reformation led to a sharp rejection of all theological positions that
smacked of “paganism”. This included the “philosophical paganism” of the
Hermetica and of neoplatonism. Moreover, much of what we now
study under the rubric of medieval and early modern esotericism –
including alchemy, astrology, and natural magic – was excluded from the
intellectual canon in the wake of the scientific revolution. As a
result, the study of such forms of non-normative religion and natural
philosophy was largely left to amateurs, Romantics, nineteenth-century
occultists, and their descendants up to the present time. “Western
esotericism” as a scholarly category emerged from such processes of
polemical rejection but also of apologetic recuperation.

The quest for higher knowledgeWestern esotericism is typically associated with special forms of
revelatory knowledge. Esoteric practitioners are found searching for
personal and transformative higher knowledge in the form of revelations,
spiritual insights, or gnosis. The attainment of gnosis has been
associated with exalted visionary experiences, sometimes resulting in
symbolic and mythical representations that have inspired provocative
artistic and literary expressions. The quest for gnosis can take many
forms, from contemplative practices and intense textual study, to
elaborate theurgic rituals, to the sacramental ingestion of
hallucinogenic substances in contemporary neoshamanic practices.

Secrecy, initiation, ritual Esotericism may also involve practices of secrecy. Esoteric movements
have given rise to a wide variety of initiatory societies that seek to
conceal their inner doctrines and rituals from the gaze of profane
outsiders. Contrary to popular belief, such groups are not usually
driven by a desire to form secret social bonds and engage in
conspiracies. Rather, in most cases the practice of secrecy tends to be
concerned with the pedagogical function of initiations. Esoteric
initiation rituals are aimed at inducing life-altering and
transformative experiences in the practitioner, and are typically
connected to the quest for higher knowledge about God, the self, and the
world.

Magic never died…

The meanings and practices known as “magic” have shifted many times
through history, but all of them remain central to the study of Western
esotericism. In Hellenistic times, magical practice was a site of
religious syncretism between early Christianity and Greek, Hebrew,
Egyptian, or Chaldaean traditions. Among the neoplatonic philosophers,
magic got associated with the practice of “theurgy” and its aspiration
of bringing the soul in communion with the divine. Throughout the
medieval period and the Renaissance, traditional magical doctrines and
practices were adapted to a Christian environment, surviving despite the
pressures of theological polemics. During the medieval and early modern
period, magic was understood in a wide variety of ways. Next to its
traditional associations with the agency of demons or angels, “natural
magic” was connected with the pursuit of science and the manipulation of
nature, while “astral” and “ceremonial” magic catered to philosophical,
religious as well as medical needs. From post-Enlightenment and
Romantic perspectives, magic is often associated with “enchanted”
worldviews alternative to strict materialism. All these meanings have
persisted to the present day through new mutations and adaptation to an
ever-changing cultural environment. With the occult revival of the
nineteenth century, esoteric groups such as the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn created new syntheses of magical practice which have
inspired a constant supply of new groups and individuals. In the
twenty-first century, magical practice is still very much alive and
well, thriving in online communities and virtual worlds as much as in
books and secret societies.

A unique opportunity

Western esotericism is a highly complex and intellectually
challenging area of study. Scholars and students are asked to reconsider
categories and narratives that are largely taken for granted in the
established disciplines of the humanities. Studying the history of
Western esotericism leads us to question and deconstruct the
intellectual and religious canon by focusing on a wide range of figures,
philosophies, movements and practices that occupy the contested margins
of Western culture. Plunging into the unknown depths of esoteric
discourses throughout history provides a unique opportunity to gain new
perspectives on our common history and culture.

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The Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (HHP) is part of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam. We are committed to the highest standards of critical academic scholarship, independent of any worldview.

Having in our Travels fortuned to meet with some Persons of true
Principles in Philosophy and Religion, we could not but embrace them and
instruct them towards its farther Perfection, which cannot be attained
without the true knowledge of our Celestial Art. by which comprehending
all the Mystery of Mysteries, we learn also how to serve God in Faith
and Truth.

And since we have no Obligation to any living Soul for time knowledge, we possess, having attained it all by the only Blessing
of Almighty God on our Industry and Experiences being therefore at more
liberty than those, who receive such a Favor from us, or some other
Adept, 'tis our determination, whenever we meet with Persons so
qualified, always to do the same.

I. The Hermetic Science consists only in the right knowledge of the
first Matter of the Philosophers which is in the Mineral kingdom not yet
determined by Nature.

II. An undetermined Matter being the
beginning of all Metals and Minerals, it follows,that as soon as any one
shall be so happy, as to know and conceive it, he shall easily
comprehend also their Natures, Qualities, and Properties.

III.
Although some Persons, possessed with foolish Notions, dream, that the
first Matter is to be found only in some particular places, at such and
such times of the year, and by the Virtue of a Magical Magnet; yet we
are most certain (according to our Divine Master Hermes) that, all these
Suppositions being false, it is to be found every where, at all times and only by our Science.

IV The Hermetic Art consists in the true Manipulation of our
undetermined Subject, which before it can be brought to the highest
degree of Perfection, must of necessity undergo all our Chymical
Operations.

VI. When we call all these Operations ours, they are not all to be
understood according to the common Operations of the Sophisters of
Metals, whose Industry consists only in disguising of Subjects from
their Form, and their Nature: but ours are really to transfigure our
Subject, yet conserving its Nature, Quality, and Property.

VII.
This our Subject, after its having passed through all those artificial
Operations, which always imitate Nature, is called the Philosophers
Stone, or the fifth Essence of Metals, being compounded of the Essence
of their four Elements.

“Happy are those who have purified their heart sufficiently so that it may serve as a mirror to Divinity, because Divinity itself will be a mirror to them.”

THROUGHOUT his many writings, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin invites us to clean our inner mirror constantly so as to rediscover its original purity. We always carry this mirror within ourselves, and for good reason since it refers to the soul or the heart of our being.Soul or heart are two terms almost always used with little distinction in the Unknown Philosopher’s works, and in the discussion at hand, they seem to be synonymous. In The New Man, it is the heart that is, in effect, the mirror. “Happy are those who have purified their heart sufficiently so that it may serve as a mirror to Divinity.” In About the Spirit of Things, the mirror is the human soul. “The soul can only bear witness to God’s love and sacredness to the degree it has become a clean and clear mirror.”With the heart or soul as a mirror, we are faced with a strange optical puzzle, and we need to understand its mechanisms if we wish to work on the heart’s purification or on polishing the secret mirror of our being, as the Unknown Philosopher advocated.

The two quotations above bring to light a real distinction between the initial source the mirror should reflect and the reflection of this very same source. We intend to analyze the relationship between the source, mirror, and reflection.

The Light of the Word

Our heart exists only because it was uttered by the Divine Word. How could the Grand Architect have done without Its great creative fire to give us life? The great Divine Word will forever remain God’s creativeinstrument. Consequently, it is also the “central and radical fire” of our being, in the etymological sense of the term, because radical comes from the Latin radix meaning “root.” The sacred fire of the Divine Word will forever be the eternal root of our being. Of course, it permanently utters the heart or mirror into existence but it doesn’t rest there; it desires to go “further.” The Divine Word seeks to manifest its reflection through the human mirror. And, having uttered our existence, this noble and Divine flame also became established in the sanctuary of our heart, there to communicate its light, life, and love.

Light radiates without impediments from the sacred flame when it burns calmly in our heart; Saint-Martin often likens the Divine fire of the Word to the “sanctuary fire,” while insisting on the profound dignity of this human mirror called upon to reflect on the grandeur of “infinite light.”However, the Word not only communicates light, but life as well: “This ever present fire is the Divine spark that animates humans.” It is a living and life-giving force, a Divine impulse necessary for the generation of a reflection that is to emerge from our mirror when it is pure. As the Unknown Philosopher so concisely and marvelously explains, the “Word is the universal hymn of love.”

However, while this majestic Light of the Grand Architect is the incontestable Source the mirror is to reflect, it would be wrong to liken this mirror too much to a simple inert recipient, rigid and lacking activity.On the contrary, the soul or heart is above all “the living sensation of their nature,” and just as gustatory cells taste and joyously recognize the most delicate of foods, so an irreproachable heart will experience the greatest joys of feeling the perpetually new nuances of the Supreme God’s love.The original soul or heart is therefore a pure vase, living and transparent like a mirror, and capable of feeling and assimilating the rays of the Divine Word. It is the sacred sanctuary where this vital and luminous Source is carefully “prepared” before being refracted for its manifestation.

A Spiritual Reflection of God

The mirror is not the reflection. What is seen in the mirror is an image or reflection of the Source. The Grand Architect wanted to emanate the hosts of spiritual beings who are the mirrors. “They reflect the dazzling clarity of their Eternal Source and form like temples arranged in space within the greater immensity so that the immensity is filled with the Eternal’s praise and glory.”The expression worth stressing here is: spiritual beings form temples, temples raised to the glory of God. This is the last link or final word of the story of our “optical mechanism.” The temple is the spiritual reflection, the luminous reflection of the Divine Source, and human beings are no exception to the rule. The reflection appearing in the mirror when it is pure is the temple or spiritual body of the soul, and its garment of light is fashioned after the image of God.

But how could this garment of the heart not be in the image of God, being after all, the pure reflection of the Divine Source? When it is seen as the manifestation of the Eternal’s glory, it takes on the name of glorious body or body of glory. Sometimes, Saint-Martin simply calls it spirit. So, in that sense, “the soul is the true heart of the spirit.”10 In other words, the heart, or soul, is truly the heart of the spiritual temple, the heart of the temple of light whose stones have been erected to the glory or in the image of the Grand Architect. It now calls for understanding the reasons why this spiritual temple should reflect the Divine Source perfectly, and why it is so necessary for this temple to be built in the exact image of God.

In the first place, it appears that Divinity does not go against the principle of revelation inherent in all beings. It aspires to reveal itself, to want to know itself, and it is because beings, like mirrors, reflect its image that it becomes conscious of itself. Here is the reason why human beings saw their original temple fashioned in the exact image of God. Here also is why it seems so necessary to make sure the mirror of the heart is pure if we wish to cooperate with the revealed plan, this “supreme plan that calls on us to assist God to know Itself in its creations and effects, and who can only do so by finding pure mirrors around It, on which It is able to see Its own rays reflected.”11 The integral and spiritual reflection that makes the mirror human allows God to not only become aware of Itself since he mirror sends back Its image, but also allows us to become conscious of God’s existence, since the human mirror projects or is clothed by this noble and majestic Divine image.

But there’s another reason that equally justifies the necessary accord between the spiritual temple and Divine Source. Moreover, Saint-Martin makes it one of the essential elements of the Tradition he set out to teach, and he explains it this way in The Ways of the Sages: “Humans exist only to prove that there is a Supreme Agent. They have been placed in the darkness of Creation only to confirm, through their own light, its existence, and to convince all those who have wanted to or would like to ignore it.”12The idea no doubt disturbed the Unknown Philosopher’s contemporaries as such as it could clash with our thinking today. But the foregoing quotation was, after all, never intended to be divulged to the public; it was more cautiously meant for the Brothers of the Elus-Cohens, an organization in which Saint-Martin held a prominent position, as we know.

Who then were those who wanted to ignore the Supreme Agent’s existence? They were members of several classes of spiritual beings emanated before human beings who came to forget God’s existence through their wrong conduct, and whose spiritual healing had rightly been granted to the human soul.

Why did the Grand Architect place the human soul in the darkness of Creation, as the quotation suggests? To govern the universe in the name of the Grand Architect, by virtue of the powers invested in it by the Word, because the universe imprisons its first beings while remaining as the chosen instrument to ensure its healing. And so these first beings could have educated themselves about the nature of Divine Reality by contemplating the soul as God’s emissary or representative placed in the darkness of the Universe; by contemplating the glory of the luminous reflection which the mirror’s purity should have radiated; by contemplating the garment of light or original temple of a human being who was created to be a reduced image of God, a symbol, a testimony, copy, book, or living explanation of the Supreme God. This noble reflection, shining from within the human sanctuary, should have been proof of the entire Divine Tradition. And so it is not only about an ideal for our soul, but about its original mission, and it is certainly the reason why the Unknown Philosopher wrote in his Green Book that ''The most beautiful state of the soul is when she best represents the source from which she descended.”13

An Unfortunate Opaqueness

But what happened to make the human soul turn away so brutally from its mission? It was no doubt endowed with considerable powers, strength, and privileges because it was nothing less than the Word of God, which it was called upon to manifest in the universe.

However the soul was also given free will. It had choice. Instead of basing all its joy and power on the light of the Word that burnt in its heart, the soul enjoyed another light, an adulterous light of a kind for which it was not created. This adulterous light is matter, animated and illuminated by the Sun, planets, and a myriad number of stars, and whose function had been solemnly entrusted. It is not that matter is bad in itself. God gave it as an instrument of healing. The false ideas born from the material world prove to be the dangers for the heart: pride, avarice, envy, anger, and all those things that keep us mercilessly riveted to the vanity of this world.

The heart was created as a dwelling of God and Its vitalizing Word exclusively. After the Fall it became the place of our cold and illusory ideas, and our exaggerated fascinations. These illusions have so absorbed our hearts that they have tarnished the mirror completely and even smothered the flame or sacred light of the Divine Word.

The consequences are certainly not an act of arbitrary divine punishment. They are perfectly natural when the luminous Source is violently suppressed, when the mirror is tarnished until it is opaque. Isn’t it natural that the reflection becomes blurred as well and ends up even disappearing?Without the capacities of the temple of light, how could the soul honor its mission? How could it honor its God and represent It in the world? “If you extinguish the human soul or if you let it glaze over through inaction, it has no God anymore and there is no more God in the universe.”14

Purgatory of the Heart

For the dull heart to rediscover its lost activity and manifest anew the beautiful reflection of God, it must allow the eternal flame of the Divine Word within to be rekindled. There is no alternative. Each person will understand how much true humility is required here because the soul is too weak to decide by itself the conditions or even the time of the noble flame’s resurrection. Each will also understand how much the Grand Architect remains as absolute Master of all initiation. Who other than It would have the strength to re-ignite the Divine Flame? Certainly not the soul, paralyzed through spiritual inactivity.

Nevertheless, the “wick” can always be found in the depths of the heart, even though “extinguished,” and we were given prayer to implore the divine warmth to embrace it anew, to earnestly ask that the soul be initiated for always into the sweetness of the Divine Fire which contains all.

We read in Man of Desire what God seems to be saying to the loving heart: “Whosoever desires to love me, I shall ignite a fire in their heart having all the intensity of the Sun; and their whole being will become resplented with the light.15 Certainly this promise allows us to glimpse great hopes, but the old personality and its indomitable illusions are again an obstacle to the manifestation of the resplendent light. For this reason the fire of the Word will be reborn slowly and gradually with wisdom among the debris and innumerable obstacles of our heart. Cooperating in the purification of the inner mirror also means accepting that the sacred fire of the Word itself will consume the smallest traces of the old personality so that from its ashes, a new one is born.

Cooperating in the purification of the inner mirror means accepting theurgical action in the original sense of the word (Theos, God; our gia, work). Theurgy is the work of God—the central and internal work which takes place in the heart of our being and which is the operative action of God. It has nothing to do with superficial and ostentatious practices of bad repute. This is why certain warnings given to the new candidate are sometimes more serious. “Woe to one who does not construct the spiritual temple on the solid foundation of the heart in constant self sacrifice and purification by the sacred fire.”The theurgical fire of the Word must sweep everything away in its path: pride, avarice, envy, laziness…everything, including anger. It will empty the heart of everything that is not of God because the Action of this Divine Fire, as we have understood, is supposed to be cleansing and painful before becoming the luminous, calm, and joyous Source that the cleaned mirror will reflect.

Reading Saint-Martin suggests that prayer is the most efficient means Divine Action has of accomplishing its task, and with it the hope of seeing the transparency of our heart manifest the new and longed-for edifice.

We only have prayer left, of course, but we also have study, the will to perfect ourselves, and the encouragements gained from the works of the Unknown Philosopher: “You must be the mirror of the Eternal. Yes, the mirror and the active reflection of God’s love.17

Kabbalah. A Very Short Introduction Joseph Dan Oxford University Press, USA

Our libraries contain many hundreds of works of kabbalah, printed or still in manuscript form. And, beside these, there are thousands of works—collections of sermons, ethical treatises, and commentaries on the scriptures and the Talmud—that use a little or more kabbalistic terminologies and ideas.

As a result, there is hardly a Jewish idea that cannot be described as “kabbalistic” with some justification, as most of these ideas are found in works that use kabbalistic terminology.

How can one distinguish between a traditional Jewish ethical norm and a kabbalistic one? Today, it often seems that designating an idea as “kabbalistic” makes it more welcome to outsiders than if it were described as “Jewish.” The main work of the medieval kabbalah, the book Zohar, contains 1,400 pages that deal with every conceivable subject. There is nothing that cannot be confirmed by a quotation from the Zohar.

Containing Relevant Texts from The Grellter Hekhalot, Textbook of the
Merkava School The works of Abraham Abulafia Joseph Gikatalia's Glltes of Light The Glltes of Holiness Gate of the Holy Spirit, Textbook of the Lurianic School Hasidic Classics

The practical Kabbalah, on the other hand, was a kind of white magic, dealing with the use of techniques that could evoke supernatural powers. It involved the use of divine names and incantations, amulets and talismans, as well as chiromancy, physiognomy and astrology.Many theoretical Kabbalists, led by the Ari, frowned on the use of such techniques, labeling them as dangerous and spiritually demeaning. As a result, only a very small number of texts have survived at all, mostly in manuscript form, and only a handful of the most innocuous of these have been published.

The path of the emotions also plays an important role in thesystems of the Kabbalists.

A path combining the intellect and emotions is the path of love, described in detail by the leading philosopher, Rabbi Moses Maimonides (1135-1204). He writes that when a person deeply contemplates on God, thinking of His mighty deeds and wondrous creations, he becomes profoundly aware of His wisdom, and is brought to a passionate love for God He speaks of a level of love called Cheshek (passion), where the emotion is so intense that every thought is exciusively engaged with its object. This love for God can be so intense that the soul can literally be drawn out of the body by it, and this is what occurs when a saint dies by the "Kiss of God." This is considered to be one of the highest possible levels of enlightenment, usually attained only at very advanced age.

One reason why so little is known about the various systems of Kabbalah meditation is that all of this literature is in Hebrew, and it has never been accurately translated. Since most of these methods are no longer practiced, the vocabulary associated with them has also been forgotten. So great is this confusion that even the very Hebrew word for meditation is not generally known. This has even led to the use of the wrong term in an article on the subject in a major Judaic encyclopedia.Once a basic vocabulary is established, however, one can gain an appreciation of how often meditation is discussed in classical texts, particularly in the Kabbalistic classics.

Edited by Gianna Katsiampoura Logo designed by Nefeli Papaioannou Published by
National Hellenic Research Foundation/Institute of Historical Research/
Section of Neohellenic Research/ Programme of History, Philosophy and
Didactics of Science and Technology

Historical research has traced the first written documents of alchemy
back in the 3rd century AD. From the 1st to the 4th centuries,
alchemical practice develops itself into an art of metallic
transmutation and two distinct alchemical “schools” seem to emerge: the
one, represented by Ostanes, is still based on the practical knowledge
of craftsmen, blacksmiths and dyers, although a shift is being
accomplished from “chrysosis” (giving to a base metal the appearance of
gold) to “chrysopoeia” (transforming a base metal to gold); the other,
represented by Zosimos and Maria the Jewess, assumes a religious,
Gnostic orientation, putting the emphasis on the elaboration of
distillation techniques.

The period of Byzantium is a turning point, not
only because there are many commentators of the ancient alchemical
texts, but for the attempt, during the 10th century, to collect these
texts and to articulate them in a coherent corpus, the surviving
manuscript copies of which comprising, to our days, the main evidence
for the emergence and the historical development of Greek alchemy.
During the last decades, historians have shown that from the Renaissance
onwards a field of knowledge concerning chemical phenomena begun to
crystallize itself and to be differentiated from traditional
“chrysopoeia”, in the sense that it implies more an experimental
research of how physical bodies are composed or decomposed than a quest
for the proper process of metallic transmutation. We may denote this field of knowledge by the term “Chymistry”.
Key role in the articulation of chymistry played a kind of occultism
which has developed at the end of the 15th century in Florence by
Marsiglio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.

What we may call
“Renaissance Occultism” is the outcome of piecing together the fragments
of many different ancient and medieval traditions. The whole
construction, though, is a consistent one, aiming at the knowledge of
nature in terms of becoming, and thus at the unfolding of the occult
life of God, who permeates nature and is regarded as an emanative
cause, tending, more and more, to be an immanent cause. Chymistry seems
to emerge when this occultism gives an epistemic horizon to the late
medieval, and especially Geberian, alchemy, in a way that henceforth the
empirical knowledge of substances’ properties and “natural principles”
has to be developed into the theoretical knowledge of material
transformations.

1. John Kanaboutzes’ Commentary on Dionysios of Halikarnassos: A Perception of Alchemy in a Fifteenth-Century Greek Text 2. Remi Franckowiak, Athanasius Rhetor: a Greek in Paris, a Priest in Alchemy 3.
Vangelis Koutalis, Cosmopoiesis as a Chymical Process: Jean
d'Espagnet's Enchiridion Physicae Restitutae and its Translation in
Greek by Anastasios Papavassilopoulos 4. Georgios Papadopoulos, Chemical Medicine in 16th and 17th c. Europe: Remarks on Local, Religious and Ideological Connections 5. Gianna Katsiampoura, Byzantine and post-Byzantine Alchemy: a Research Project in Progress

From the Latin word for womb (in turn from mater or mother), a matrix
is either the intercellular substance of a tissue, the material in which
a fossil is embedded, or a mold from which a relief surface is made in
printing or phonograph manufacturing.

"Or are you ignorant, Asclepius, that Egypt is (the) image of heaven?
Moreover, it is the dwelling place of heaven and all the forces that
are in heaven. If it is proper for us to speak the truth, our land is
(the) temple of the world.

And it is proper for you not to be ignorant
that a time will come in it (our land, when) Egyptians will seem to have
served the divinity in vain, and all their activity in their religion
will be despised.

For all divinity will leave Egypt, and will
flee upward to heaven. And Egypt will be widowed; it will be abandoned
by the gods.

For foreigners will come into Egypt, and they will rule it.
Egypt! Moreover, Egyptians will be prohibited from worshipping God.
Furthermore, they will come into the ultimate punishment, especially
whoever among them is found worshipping (and) honoring God.

In her books Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky refers
to Hermes on at least sixty pages. In fact, Hermes occupies a prominent
position in all the early Theosophical teachings. We already saw, in the opening citation of this chapter, that the hermetic philosophy is
proposed as the only key to knowledge of the inner essence of
things........

The archaic wisdom primarily presented by Blavatsky that everything contains consciousness and there is therefore no “dead”
matter was a cry in the materialistic wilderness in those days. With
broad agreement, Blavatsky quotes Hermes in another fragment from
Stobaeus: So Hermes says, the Thrice-Greatest Trismegistus: “O’ my
son, matter becomes; earlier she was; for matter is the vehicle of the
becoming. Becoming is the activity of the not yet created Deity.
After the matter has been endowed with the germ of becoming, she is
born, for the creative force models her according to the ideal forms.
Matter not yet brought forth has no form; she becomes, when she is put
into motion.”......................

The Poimandres, the first treatise of the Corpus Hermeticum, made an
especially deep impression on Blavatsky, and she refers to it many
times: In the “Book of Hermes” Poimandres appears to Hermes, the
oldest and the most spiritual of the Logoi of the western continent, in
the shape of a fiery Dragon of “Light, Fire, and Flame.” Poimandres, the
personified “Divine Thought,” says: “The Light is me, I am the Nous, I
am thy God, and I am far older than the human principle which escapes
from the shadow…”

In the Perfect Sermon, Hermes, Asclepius, Tat, and Ammon gather together in the temple room:

When Ammon too had come within the holy place, and when the sacred
group of four was now complete with piety and with God's goodly presence
to them, sunk in fit silence reverently, their souls and minds pendent
on Hermes' lips, thus Love Divine began to speak. When Hermes son, Tat, asks the meaning of this, he teaches him that the Divine Love reveals itself in the silence of the heart.

Lapis philosophorum occurs in works attributed to Raymund Lully
(1234-1315), and in those of Amoldus de Villa Nova (1240-1314).
Probably it was used earlier; it appears in various mediaeval works of
uncertain age or doubtful authenticity; e.g. in the Clavis Majoris
Sapientiœ attributed to Artefius or Artesius, whose date has been put by
some c1130.

In some of these also we find lapis philosophicus, I. philosophi­calis. But the earlier works (e.g. the mediaeval Latin De
Investigatione Perfecti Magisterii), passing as translated from Geber
(Abu Musa Ja’far al-Sufi), usually refer to it simply as Lapis “the
Stone,” or noster lapis “our stone.” Albertus Magnus (1205-82), who
doubted the transmutation of metals, refers to it as lapis quern
philosophi laudant ubique, “the stone which the philosophers everywhere
laud,” and lapis quern honorant philosophi.

It is thus possible
that philosophorum originated later, as an identifying adjunct to lapis,
as if “the Stone, of which all the philosophers speak,” “the Stone of
the philosophers,” and that the descriptive phrase grew at length into a
specific name or title............

There is likewise a reference to philosophorum acetum in two versions
of a text datable on internal evidence to the mid­ thirteenth century. Forms such as these, and the use of philosophi to mean “alchemists” in the Clavi s maioris sapienti ae, go back to the use by writers in
Greek of (φιλόσοσφος) “philosopher” with special reference to
alchemical practitioners; this was widespread from late antiquity
onwards. Alchemical specialties could, then, be labelled as
philosophorum in early texts, and they continued to be so labelled:
hence, for instance, the title of the fourteenth-century Rosarius
philosophorum attributed to Amau de Vilanova and the requirement in that
work that a process take place per mensem philosophorum idest per.XL.
dies, and hence also the reference to mercurius philosophorum in another
text extant in a fourteenth-century manuscript.

From a note on lapis philosophicus and some other medieval names of the philosophers’ stone By John Considine

Kircherbelieved thattheancientpolytheismwasa misunderstandingof the multiplefacetsof the Sunand the Moon.Here we arepresentingin thiscorrespondencestoeachDeitywith the appropriategoing concernactive or passivepower

The Essenes were a Jewish movement living in
various settlements throughout Palestine between the second century
b.c. and a.d. 66–70. They are not named in the NT, but it is possible
that *John the Baptist was acquainted with some of them living in the
Judean wilderness. The Essenes are known from ancient Greek and Latin
sources and likely also from the Hebrew
and Aramaic *Dead Sea Scrolls. These sources reveal overlapping but
distinct practices and beliefs within the Essene movement and
significant points of contact with the emerging Jesus movement.

1. Sources from Antiquity.

References
to sources in this article are conflated for convenience but with the
understanding that the Es- senes are portrayed and nuanced differently
in the various texts, which in turn were influenced by the particular
locations and interests of both authors and audiences (Jewish or
Roman) and their ac- quaintanceship with different kinds of Essenes
(cf. selective emphases in the four Gospel accounts). The external,
Greek and Latin sources are more focused in the external distinctives
such as celibacy and the community of goods while revealing little or
no knowledge of calendar, messianism and apocalypticism issues
addressed in the DSS. The external sources also betray an intrigue in
the more mundane details of body and dress for example, the wearing of
white robes, the avoidance of spitting, and specific procedures for
toileting (Josephus, J.W. 2.123, 129,147-149).1.1. External,
Classical Sources: Philo, Pliny, Jo­ sephus. In addition to being
mentioned in Hippoly- tus, Dio Chrysostom, Hegesippus, Hippolytus, Por-
phyry, Solinum and Epiphanius, the Essenes are treated by a handful
of first-century a.d. writers. Philo, an Alexandrian Jewish
philosopher, wrote the oldest extant descriptions of the Essenes in That
Every Good Person Is Free (Prob. 75-91), Hypothetica (Hypoth. 11.1-18)
and On the Contemplative Life, por- traying the Essenes in light of his
own philosophic and ethical ideals.For the Roman Pliny, the
Essenes were a curios- ity, a “throng of refugees” located near Engedi
and the “lake of Asphalt” and remarkable for having only palm trees for
company and for having “no women” and “no money” (Nat. 5.15.73).A
Jewish historian writing for a Roman audi- ence, *Josephus effectively
conformed the Essenes to a Hellenistic ideal in his selective
descriptions found mainly in Jewish War (J.W. 2.119-161), Jewish Antiq-
uities (Ant. 18.18-22) and Life (Life 9-12).1.2. Internal,
Sectarian Sources: Dead Sea Scrolls. Although aspects of the Yaḥad
(“commu- nity”) in the sectarian DSS have variously been identified with
the *Sadducees, Zealots, *Pharisees and even Judeo-Christians, the
Yaḥad most resembles the “Essenes” known from the classical sources.Some,
but not all, from the Yaḥad settled at Qumran. For example, the
Damascus Document (CD) refers to “camps” comp0sed of married people and
children, while the descriptions of community life in the Rule of the
Community (1QS) suggest a male, celibate community.

2. Communities of Essenes.

2.1.
Multiple Groups and Locations. Numbered at more than four thousand
(Philo, Prob. 75; Jose- phus, Ant. 18.20), Essenes were variously
reported as living near the Dead Sea (Pliny, Nat. 5.15.73), avoid- ing
cities but living in villages (Philo, Prob. 76), living in many cities
and towns (Josephus, J.W. 2.124), and living in “camps” with a minimum
of ten members (CD-A XII, 22—XIII, 2; cf. 1QS VI, 1-8). Josephus knew of
Jerusalem’s “Gate of the Essenes” (J.W. 5.145).2.2. Essenes
and the Early Jesus Movement. G. Brooke has noted that the branch of
educated, ur- ban Qumran Essenes originally from *Jerusalem in- sisted
on priestly purity, protected sacred space and practiced a “hardline”
legal interpretation. In con- trast, Jesus and his followers were lower
middle class, from small towns, and practiced an open *table fel-
lowship. Yet, similar conversational tensions may be found (see 3.2
below). For example, the sectarians were in dispute with a group that
they called the “Flattery-Seekers,” “Shoddy-Wall-Builders” or “White-
Washers” (CD-A I, 18-19; VIII, 12-13; CD-B XIX, 24-25), most likely the
Pharisees (cf. Mt 23:27-28).2.3. Essenes and Outsiders. In
Matthew, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Mt 10:34) is in
tension with “All who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Mt
26:52; cf. Mk 14:43-52; Lk 22:47-53; Jn 18:2-12). The classical sources
present the Essenes as “servants of peace” (Josephus, J.W. 2.135), not
making weapons of war (Philo, Prob. 78), attending to strangers, and
providing them with clothing and other essentials (Josephus, J.W.
2.132). During initia- tion they swore both to “do no harm to anyone”
and to “hate the wicked” (Josephus, J.W. 2.139, 142). Yet, Essenes were
said to carry arms for protection against brigands (Josephus, J.W.
2.125), and a certain “John the Essene” presumably carried arms in his
role as commander (Josephus, J.W. 2.567; 3.11).Jesus’ followers were told to love their enemies, blessing instead of cursing them (Mt 5:43-48; Lk 6:27-36).
In the Rule of the Community of the Yaḥad the “children of light” were
to hate the “children of darkness” (1QS I, 9-10), cursing those
“foreordained to Belial” (1QS II, 4-9), while concealing their hatred
for the “Men of the Pit” until the day of vengeance (1QS IX, 17-23). In
the meantime, while they awaited the divinely initiated eschatological
*judgment (1QM; 1QpHab V, 3-5), they were not to return evil for evil,
but instead were to pursue others only for good (1QS X, 17-20).The
Aramaic Genesis is presented as laying hands on the Egyptian king for
healing and as teaching Egyptians the knowledge of “goodness, wisdom,
and righteousness” (1QapGen ar XIX, 23-25; XX, 21-29; cf. Jesus healing
Israel’s ene- mies in Mt 8:5-13; 15:21-28).

3. Essene Practices and Beliefs.

3.1.
Initiation, Table Fellowship, Swearing of Oaths. The probationary
period for entry into the sect lasted between two and three years;
initiation involved testing of character and, at the end of vari- ous
stages, the transfer of property, the taking of oaths and
participation in pure meals and pure drink (Josephus, J.W.
2.137-138; cf. 1QS VI, 13-23). The Essenes practiced a closed table
fellowship; pre- sumably visitors or new probationers ate separately
(cf. table fellowship in Mk 2:16-17; 14:12-26). Swear- ing of oaths was
prohibited except upon admission to sect (Josephus, J.W. 2.135, 139;
Philo, Prob. 84; CD-A XV, 5-12; 1QS V, 8-11; cf. Mt 5:33-37; 23:16-22).3.2.
Alternative Ways of Living as Priestly, Torah­ abiding Jews. Some have
suggested that the Ara- maicizing of the Hebrew “doers” (ʿosim) of the
inter- pretation of the Torah (CD-A IV, 8) may plausibly be the origin
of the term “Essenes.”This group believed itself to be true
Israel, a true priesthood and acceptable sacrifice, inheritors of the
language of “planting,” “temple,” “remnant,” “corner- stone” and the
“chosen” (1QS VIII, 1-10a; cf. Jesus as cornerstone in Mk 12.1-11 and
discussion about true children of Abraham in Jn 8:39-42).The
Damascus Document (CD-A X, 14—XI, 18) records Sabbath restrictions
against work in the field, carrying medicine or a baby, assisting an
ani- mal giving birth, and helping an animal fallen into a well. Humans
fallen into a well could not be helped with ladder, rope or tool (cf. Mt
12:11-12; Mk 2:2328). Sabbath rules recorded by Josephus pertained to
food and fire preparation and not defecating on the Sabbath (J.W.
2.147-149; cf. 1QM VII, 5-7). The Essene court, not the high priest’s
court, decided ver- dicts, including the death sentence for blasphemy
(Josephus, J.W. 2.143-145; cf. Mt 26.57-66; Mk 14.5364). Essenes were
known for interpreting dreams (Josephus, J.W. 2.112-113; Ant.
17.345-348) and reliably exercising prophetic gifts (Josephus, J.W.
2.159; cf. Mt 11:8-10; Lk 1:76; 2:36; 7:26-28).Judas the Essene
is in the temple when he prophesies the death of Antigonus (Josephus,
J.W. 1.78-80; Ant. 13.310-314; cf. Lk 2:36-37). However, like Jesus, at
least some Essenes were openly critical of the *temple as it was
currently run and its priesthood(CD-B XX, 22-23; 1QpHab I, 13;
cf. Mk 11:15-18). Alhough some sent offerings to the temple, they of-
fered up some type of sacrifice among themselves with special
practices for purification (Josephus, Ant. 18:18-19). Alternatively,
they may not have offered animal sacrifices at all (Philo, Prob. 75; cf.
1QS VIII, 9-10; IX, 4-5); the DSS attest morning and eve- ning prayers
as an alternative to sacrifices (4Q503; cf.Philo, Contempl.).The
Hebrew Scriptures commanded washings for ritual impurities (Lev 14-17),
and John’s *baptism required confession and *repentance for moral
impurities (Mt 3:7-11). Essenes preceded their pure meal with cold-water
immersion and *prayers (Josephus, J.W. 2.129-131). These immersions
remedied ritual and moral impurity and were accompanied by repentance
(1QS V, 13-18; cf. Josephus, Ant. 18.19).3.3. Marrying,
Nonmarrying and Widower Es­ senes. A practice of leaving one’s wife,
brothers, par- ents or children for the sake of the *kingdom of God was
known in Luke’s Gospel (Lk 18:29-30; cf. Mt19:29-30; Mk 10:29-30).According
to Josephus, one order of Essenes disdained marriage but adopted
children (J.W. 2.120), while another order permitted marriage for the
purpose of procreation of children only, abstaining from intercourse
during pregnancy (J.W. 2.160-161; cf. Lk 14:25-26).Philo notes
that “no Essene takes a wife”; however, the phrase “even if the older
men, however, happen to be childless” implies that some had children
(Hypoth. 11.13). There is no legislation on celibacy or marriage in the
Rule of the Community; however, the Damascus Document has rules for
women and children (CD-A VII, 6-9; CD-B XIX, 3-5), and some communities
had both “mothers” and “fathers” (4Q270 7 I, 13-15).Definition of
fornication included approaching a wife “not ac- cording to the
regulation” (4Q270 7 I, 12-13) and the taking of more than one wife in a
lifetime (CD-A IV,20-V, 1). It is possible that a celibate, male
Essene community may have attracted widowers, who, according to this
regulation, could not remarry.3.4. Wealth, Livelihood, Social
Justice. Deliberate lifestyle choices resulted from observed social
injustices. *Slavery was rejected, and each served the other as
brothers (Philo, Prob. 79; Josephus, Ant.18.21). Essenes
avoided the practice of commerce (Philo, Prob. 78), devoting themselves
to manual or agricultural work and craftsmanship (Philo, Prob.76;
Hypoth. 11.8-9; Josephus, Ant. 18.19).They were known not to
hoard “gold or silver” or acquire large pieces of land, living without
excess of riches but not in poverty (Philo, Prob. 76-77; Josephus, J.W.
2.122). In comparison, Jesus’ teaching on treasures on earth and in
heaven is nuanced eschatalogically (Mt 6:1921; Lk 12:33-34) (see Rich
and Poor).Essenes vowed to keep themselves from theft and
“unlawful gain” (Josephus, J.W. 2.139-141); priests were not to rob the
poor and the widow or kill the orphan (CD-A VI,16-17; cf. Lk 18:3-5). Variously,
Essenes enjoyed a community of goods with no private property (Pliny,
Nat. 5.15.73; Josephus, J.W. 2.122; Ant. 18.20; Philo, Prob. 85-86;
Hypoth. 11.4-5, 10-12) or had some pri- vate means (CD-A XIV, 12-16;
Josephus, J.W. 2.124; cf. Acts 4:32-5:11). The “riches” of initiates
into the Yaḥad were to be mingled with the community’s property only
after two years (1QS I, 11-12; VI, 18-23).Essenes were known to
care for their own sick and elderly (Philo, Prob. 87; Hypoth. 11.13);
the Qumran Essenes were meant to support the poor, needy, alien,
elderly, diseased, captive and fatherless until the messiahs of Aaron
and Israel arrived (CD-A VI,21; XIV, 13-19).3.5. Fate and
Immortality. “Fate is mistress of all things” (Josephus, Ant.
13.171-173), a predeterministic theology echoed in 1QS III, 15-16.
Josephus attributed a belief in the immortality of soul to the Essenes
(J.W.2.154-155; Ant. 18.18). Yet, while Josephus reports that the
Pharisees believed in a bodily *resurrection and that the Essenes did
not (J.W. 2.163; cf. Mt 22:23-33), some of the DSS hint that some of the
people of these scrolls did. For example, the anticipated messiah was
expected to cause the dead to live (4Q521 2 II, 12; cf. Jub. 23:30-31;
Hippolytus, Haer. 9.27).

See also Dead Sea Scrolls; Pharisees; Priests and Priesthood; Sadducees.